Global Innovation Tour DRAFT
Abstract
The Global Entrepreneurship Program, one purposed towards expanding the minds and work experiences of entrepreneurial students in order to employ them with the knowledge and tools needed for a future entrepreneurial career, has employed a team of young entrepreneurs to plan a world spanning trip for 6 University of Canberra students. The process of planning for this trip was a major collaborative effort, where half of the challenge was deciding what our entrepreneurial challenge was. Through the discussion of employing tools such as a Business Model, the understanding of the benefits of a social entrepreneurship organisation and their application to our scenario, and the ability to reflect on the entrepreneurial aspect of this project, the following writing will conclude that the skills and experience I have gained throughout this project reflect the knowledge acquired through not only Entrepreneurship coursework but through the efforts of this assignment.
Introduction
This report has been prepared to reflect on my experience undertaking a practical Global Enterprise Project. The Global Enterprise project is designed to expose students to entrepreneurship in a global context. I was allocated to work in a group of 4 students. We had 20 hours over a 6-week period to work on this project. Within this time period, our task is to research the most entrepreneurial and innovative locations around the world and from our findings, we were to put together a plan for some students to travel to these locations. In the first part of the report, I will specify the aim and objectives of the project. Secondly, I will briefly describe project activities including a discussion on the funding and the Business Model Canvas. Thirdly, the problems we encountered throughout the group work and finally, the areas that could have been improved upon.
Aims and Objectives
The aim of this project is to send a group of five University of Canberra students abroad to six different locations which are known for their innovative and entrepreneurial aspects. The purpose of this project is to give students the opportunity to gain real world experience of entrepreneurship on a global perspective. This program addresses graduate attributes - 1. adopt an informed and balanced approach across professional and international boundaries, 2. think globally about issues in their profession, and 3. communicate effectively in diverse cultural and social settings.
The Planning and Progression
In our first meeting, we got to know one another, identified objectives of the project, clarified expectations and discussed tasks. Our unit convener, Diane Phillips worked closely with us, but she gave us complete control over this project. Our first task was to define key entrepreneurial terms and we came up with our own written definition (See Annex A for definitions). Our second activity was to research 6 locations/cities across the globe and matched them to the terms. The top six entrepreneurial cities we picked were Silicon Valley, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, Waterloo and Canberra. Our third task was to research what entrepreneurial things the students could do and see during their visit to these cities (See Annex B). We went out on our own to do some general research in this area. In the locations we found, UC students will be given a unique opportunity to learn from some of the world’s biggest startups and work with students from around the globe. The next step was to devise a travel plan and budget (See Annex C for travel plan). It was at this point that the group began to feel somewhat discouraged. The fact that we were not receiving sufficient instruction for the requested assignment may have been the reason for that. I now understand that the instructional method was intended to prompt us to construct our own learning experience. My group and I had complete control over the project and because of that, we had to be more self-motivated and take the initiative to learn and solve problems.
Funding
As the project is a full funded program, it involved looking for ways to get funding. Maddison and I approached UC Study Abroad and Exchange hoping they could partly fund the project. We were not confident and we had a feeling that it was going to be a failure due to the fact that the project was still at an early stage and we did not have a firm plan in mind. We spoke with the manager, Laura Thompson, and she kindly advised us through the requirements and application process for funding. We then took back to the group the documents and information that we received. From this experience, I was able to gain confidence in my networking and communication skills. Other sources of funding we identified were government funding, external sponsorships and fundraising activities. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to further investigate these funding options.
Business Model Canvas
The group built a business model around the project (See Annex D for Business Model). The Business Model Canvas is an innovative tool to illustrate how the enterprise is positioned within its market sector, and how it organizes its relations with its suppliers, clients, and partners in order to generate value (Cosenz, 2017). The Canvas has nine key elements which they refer to as the building blocks of an organisation. The project will not be providing a financial return on investment. This was a challenge for the group as we did not understand how the concept of business models could be applicable and relevant to our project. However, we brainstormed and attempted to map each of elements with the components of the project. The Business Model Canvas showcases how the activities of the project align with one another and how it intends to gather funds to achieve its aims.
The Problems We Met
The problems that we as a group faced were ones that we would generally expect to encounter. Time constraint posed a great challenge to my group. I personally feel that my group members and myself could have done much better in executing this project if we had managed our time properly and usefully. Unfortunately, not all members were at the initial face-to-face meetings. As the four of us had different timetables and amount of workloads, meeting up for discussion was much harder to plan. The group met together several Sunday afternoons and enabled group members to share their progress. However, one member was often late to our weekly group meetings and was absent in two of them which hindered the performance of the group. Another problem we faced was as mentioned before, the instructions given to us were not clear and concise which created confusion among the group. Gradually we all developed a sense of understanding of the project and we pulled together and handled it very well.
Areas for Improvement
There are many areas for improvement in this group project. I believe that by having more than one meeting or by having meetings for longer hours could benefit the group a lot. I learnt that when all members are present, we could allocate and accomplish the tasks more efficiently and effectively. I found that a lot of time was spent on the first and second activity which did not give much time for the other tasks. To avoid delays, we needed to better manage the timing of our tasks. In addition to this, I believe could be beneficial for the group is to let each individual run a different task so that the workload was equally divided between all group members.
This reports details work carried out on Global Enterprise Project by four university students. Other than a brief outline on end results and a suggested starting point, our team was left for the most part to come up with plans, processes and scope of the project, this presented both challenges in having little structure to go off and opportunities in being able to get creative and innovative in scoping and planning the project ourselves.
Objectives of Project
The objectives of this project were to develop a plan for 6 students to travel overseas to entrepreneurial and innovative locations around the globe.
Tasks
- Defined key terms used in project
- Selecting 6 locations around the globe for their innovative/entrepreneurial appeal
- Investigating funding options including Study Aboard, Government funding, External sponsorship and fundraising
- Critical analysis and forward planning of trip including :
- How students are selected (including consideration of gender, age, maturity, core study area and relevance etc)
- Requirement (or not) for staff presence on trip and impact on overall trip costs
- Travel plans include:
- Airflights, accommodation, transport, order of locations visited, time aside for jet lag etc.
- Daily agenda in each location
- Length of trip
- Keeping costs down (book flights and accommodation ahead, get apartments to sleep all for cost savings over length of stays)
- Development of Business Plan including business/financial model
Outcomes
- Developed new definitions of key terms, See Annex A.
- Selected 6 locations, See Annex B.
- Developed draft travel plan, see Annex C
- Developed Business model canvas, see Annex D
- Finally, we discussed recommendations for future groups to work on the further develop this project.
Next steps for next group
- Develop plan to approach sponsors/secure finances for trip
- Get approval from university of Canberra and Study Abroad to conduct pilot trip
- Look into potential policy/legal requirements/duty of care issues and risk mitigate
- Follow up response from Government of funding
- Work out method on selection of students (first in best dressed, all girls/all boys, staff accompanying)
Reflection
The culture in our group was creative, unstructured, un-hierarchical, motivated and fun. As the scope and planning was left to us it provided challenges in having little formal structure or scope/milestones to go off in the project plan. It also however, provided the opportunity to get creative and innovative and to develop plans in our own way which really helped motivate our team.
As we were all students, we were all equals with everyone having the same opportunity to put their ideas and thoughts forward and no one person having any over-ruling say of decision making power.
I think the culture in our group is what you would find typically more often in a social enterprise group rather than a for-profit industry. For example Google encourage and support creativity, fun in the workplace (eg. Basketball hoops in rooms in the office) and highly motivated people. They’re also more likely to encourage a more unstructured, un-hierarchical culture to foster creativity, open mindedness and outside the box thinking.
When you consider a for-profit company such as a bank, by contrast, you would expect the culture here to be much more formal, rigid, sticking to process and policy, hierarchical (one person has over ruling decision and responsibility), routine and structured type of culture.
In terms of knowledge and skills available to our team, our core studies varied from Commerce, to Business Management and Administration degrees which we’d all gained useful skills studying, but we had no direct experience in scoping and planning this type of project. The project was carried out based on our best efforts, ‘on the spot’ learning and research skills. For example, in looking at travel options, none of us are travel agents, we don’t know the best options to go with or detailed do’s and don’ts in each country, therefore the plan put together is our best efforts, not necessary the highly developed plans of an experienced travel planner. This is also true in looking at our finance options and business model, none of us are accountants or business analysts, so our efforts on these our combined best efforts rather professional standard.
I think this level of knowledge and skills is fairly common in many social enterprise organisations such as The Salvations Army’s Red Shield Appeal or St Vincent De Paul’s second hand clothing stores. The people hired or donating their time may not be experts in their fields, or even hold any formal qualifications at all, but because they’re willing to do the job at little or no cost and there’s always a need, these organisations are more likely to take on whoever they can get who’s willing.
Google may be an exception to this however, as although it’s a social enterprise they can afford to hire the best in the market/field for any particular role, so you would expect the general level of knowledge and skills in the Google team for be far higher and more advanced than that of a typical social enterprise organisation.
When you compare the knowledge and skills you might expect in a social enterprise organisation to that of a for-profit organisation, it is much more likely that you would find greater levels of skills and knowledge in for-profit organisations, especially if they’re well established in the market. This is likely because for-profit organisations are more likely to be in a position to afford to pay highly qualified and skilled people to work for them.
The attitude within our group fluctuated between confusion on trying to work out scope and pin down milestones/completion points and creative, motivated and fun planning. There was no leader within our team (Diane was available to assist but the planning and details were left to us) which enabled a much more collaborative, free thinking and creative atmosphere. Because we had autonomy over the project, it allowed us to have a sense of ownership and personal responsibility for the outcome which was both daunting and inspiring. The type of project we were working on had real benefits to offer future students, because of this, the feeling of directly contributing to something bigger than yourselves and something worthwhile really enabled a sense of purpose and direction to come through in the team.
In many social enterprises, especially smaller start-ups of a just a few people, it’s more likely that you’ll find highly motivated people who care passionately about their project. In many cases, the project or endeavour becomes “their baby” and they follow the progress of it meticulously and carefully, always looking out for opportunities and trying their best to get it up and running and growing. For example, Apple began as a small start-up of a few friends out of a garage and Steve Jobs was well known for his passion and commitment to excellence in his apple products.
When you compare this with the attitude you might typically find in a for profit organisation, I think in general you are likely to find lower levels of motivation and passion and leadership to be more routine and structured rather than inspiring and with the capacity to motivate and give a sense of purpose to other team members. For example if you think of the attitudes in a retail store such as Kmart, many employees are likely to be working there just to earn some money rather than having any sense of deeper gratification from the work they’re doing. They’re more likely to just do their time and leave rather than feeling passionately about the organisation, its mission, objectives and the part they play.
Conclusion
The project given to us was a large project. Unfortunately, due to lack of time we were unable to complete all parts of the project. If I was to carry out a similar project, I would create a timeline to make sure the tasks are completed on time. Overall, the group worked together very well. We managed to stay in constant communication and helped another along the way towards the endpoint of the project. I believe the work we produced provides a deep insight into the different innovative cities and business organisations where students would gain real world experience and expand their knowledge about entrepreneurship globally. Working on this Global Enterprise Project for university of Canberra gave us first hand insight into the challenges and opportunities provided in this type of social enterprise endeavour. It gave us the opportunity to feel a sense of ownership over the outcomes and success of the project and the challenges that we had to face to get it up and running and ‘make it work’. It provided us with greater appreciation and understanding into the daily struggles and stresses of the typical entrepreneur and the also the rewarding feeling that comes from knowing that your project is moving along and making progress.
Definitions and Criteria for Locations
Innovation
- “Innovation is the creation of something that improves the way we live our lives” (Obama, B., as quoted in Cohen 2015)
- “Fresh thinking that creates value” (Lyons, M. as quoted in n.a. 2011)
- “Innovation is the creation of the new or the re-arranging of the old in a new way” (Vance, M,. 2017)
New definition:
Innovation is the process of new creation or change that adds value or brings improvement.
Social Impact
- “Understanding the effects on various people that happen as a result of an action, activity, project, programme or policy. The ‘impact’ of this action or activity can be positive or negative, and can be intended or unintended, or a combination of all of these” (Social Impact, 2017)
- “The effect of an activity on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families” (Business Dictionary, 2017)
- “Social impact can be defined as the net effect of an activity on a community and the well-being of individuals and families” (CS1 2017)
New definition:
Social Impact is the given effect that certain activities can have on a social level of a community. The effects of these activities can either have a negative or positive widespread impact on the community; and as such can change the way the community functions as a whole, and as individuals within it.
Internal thinking
- The implicative or conceptual relationships among descriptors as obtained, for example, from judgments of meaning similarity or probability of co-occurrence (D'Andrade, 1965; Peabody, 1984)
- Thought contents always supervene on properties intrinsic to the thinker.
- Internal thinking are negatively correlated with extraversion and agreeable. An internal thinker prefers to work on task that allow one to work on independent unit.
New definition:
Internal thinking is a psychological thinking approach that prefers to think introverted self c manner and work independently. [s1]
Critical thinking
- “The ability to reason logically to solve complex open-ended problems; to generate meaning and knowledge from information; to critically evaluate information and distil it down to what is useful and relevant, recognize patterns and engage in divergent thinking.”
- “Critical thinking is a form of higher-order thinking – consciously controlled reflective thought that draws on, but can be distinguished from, lower-order cognitive processes like perception, attention, and memory” (Smith, p. 26)
- “Critical thinking is a way of approaching and solving problems based on convincing, logical and rational arguments, which involve verifying, evaluating and choosing the right response for a given task and reasoned rejection of the other alternative solutions.” (Ticuşan and Elena, p.309)
New definition:
An individual’s ability to think clearly and systematically, to analyse and identify problems from complicated situations, to gather relevant information and create alternative solutions.
Creative Thinking
- A way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions (which may look unsettling at first). Creative thinking can be stimulated both by an unstructured process such as brainstorming, and by a structured process such as lateral thinking (Creative thinking, 2017).
- “The critical and creative functions of the mind are so interwoven that neither can be separated from the other without an essential loss to both.”
Accordingly, critical and creative thought are both achievements of thought. Creativity masters a process of making or producing, criticality a process of assessing or judging. The very definition of the word “creative” implies a critical component (e.g., “having or showing imagination and artistic or intellectual inventiveness”). When engaged in high-quality thought, the mind must simultaneously produce and assess, both generate and judge the products it fabricates. In short, sound thinking requires both imagination and intellectual standards. (Paul & Elder, 2008)
3. ‘Creative thinking’ reveals the kind of thinking that leads to new insights,
new approaches, fresh perspectives, and entire new ways of understanding and
conceiving of things (‘thinking’ in popular culture, 2017)
New definition:
A way of thinking outside the box that brings new ideas and perspectives to the table and developsdevelops fresh insights and new understandings.
Locations
Canberra, Australia
- Explore Canberra and Surrounding areas and attractions
- Stay: 3 days
- Day 1: Entry 29 Hub & Canberra innovation Network
- Day 2: Questacon
- Day 3 Pack and prepare for flights to SiliconSilicon Valley, United States
Canberra Innovation Network
Canberra Innovation Network is an organisation supporting and promoting innovation in Canberra (CBR Innovation Network, n.d.). It helps to Canberra entrepreneurs by running innovators collaboration events, holding start-ups workshops, offering researchers and mentors, providing investors and venture capital and giving affordable co-working spaces. Free for new joiners on the first Wednesday of the month, this community of entrepreneurs and innovators consists of members from all walks of the community across various occupations and industries. Coming together to network and share ideas for continual improvements in Canberra.
Questacon
Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre, Questacon offers a range of educational and fun activities, presentations and exhibits for all ages. Questacon aims to grow awareness of science and technology within the community with over 430,000 visitors annually to it Canberra locations and an addition 660,000 who see their exhibits in other locations around Australia and around the world (Questacon, 2017).
University of Canberra
Entry 29 Hub
A share space made of a community of like-minded entrepreneurs collaborating, helping and sharing ideas and advice. Located on campus, a tour can be organised by appointment (Entry 29, 2017).
Some basic knowledge of innovation and entrepreneurship gained through the events can assist student entrepreneurs to have a better understanding of Global Enterprise Program, as well as their networking, communication and organisation skills which is needed during the trip. To start the journey of innovative sites across the globe, why not start with seeing what’s right here in our backyard in Canberra.
Tokyo, Japan
Stay: 5 days
Day 1: Rest and recover
Day 2: Tokyo Institute of Technology
Day 3: Akihabara district
Day 4: The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation
Day 5: Pack and prepare for flights
The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation
The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation is one of the most innovative and interactive technology museum in Japan with a focus on integration between science and arts. It presents up-to-date information including global warming pattern, natural disaster, human waste, robots, earth science and architectural exhibitions.
Akihabara district
Akihabara district is traditionally known for or its vast array of electronic shops, and it is also famous for its anime and manga products. It represents Japan’s vibrant electric retailing industry and its unique Otaku culture.
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Tokyo Institute of Technology, also known as Tokyo Tech, is the national university of Japan with more than 130-year history. With a goal of becoming the world’s leading science and Technology University, Tokyo Tech focuses on finding solutions on global issues through researches (Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2017).
Tokyo is the economic centre of Japan with a competitive advantage on banking, financial services, insurance, inbound tourism, telecommunication, and high-tech industry. The emerging culture of innovation and technology in Japan attracts countless entrepreneurs around the world. Akihabara district and National museum are selected to provide student entrepreneurs an overview of Japanese automation and high tech industry in order to develop a futuristic and visionary view on global business environment. Tokyo Institute of Technology retains many talents in the field of technology and science, and attracts young and educated entrepreneurs, as well as university research programs. It is important to provide an opportunity for student entrepreneurs to involve in an innovative and entrepreneurial learning environment.
3. Shanghai, China
Innovation Centre of Denmark
Acting as an entry point to growth in China in the innovative industry, one of the fastest developing worldwide. This centre functions as a medium connecting people to local authorities, companies and research avenues in pursuing their business opportunities. Offering opportunities specifically targeted at entrepreneurship, business development, SMEs, start-up tools and innovative packages with hours of individual counselling, this is a valuable resource to any keen entrepreneur looking to launch their idea in the market (Innovation Centre Denmark, 2017).
Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
Promoting science and developing the countries competitive edge in the areas of technology and science, this museum offers a broad range of things to see and do. With currently over 14 open thematic exhibitions on such things as Cradle of designers, Children’s science land, information era, world of robots and space navigation, this is a treasure trove of inspiration and creativity of any curious entrepreneur. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum also has four special cinema’s making up the largest science educational cinema in Asia. In addition to the main attractions and themes, they will run many other exhibits throughout the year. Shanghai Science and Technology’s theme is “Nature, mankind, technology” (Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, 2017).
Silicon Valley, USA
Stay: 6 Days
Day 1: Rest and recover
Day 2: Facebook Campus
Day 3: Google Plex
Day 4: The Intel Museum
Day 5: Apple Headquarters and Campus Store
Day 6: Pack and prepare for flights to Waterloo Canada
Silicon Valley is the name given to the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California, United States (ICANN 2011). The name, derived from the production of silicon chips in the area, insinuates one of the largest technological hubs in the world. Home to modern technologies front runners in technological revolution such as; Google, HP, Apple and Intel, this area boasts to be the leader in terms of “high-tech innovation and development, accounting for 1/3 of all of the venture capital investment in the United States” (ICANN 2011). Through the visiting of Silicon Valley, specifically Googleplex, Facebook Campus, The Intel Museum and Apple Headquarters and Campus Store (amongst many others), students will be given the opportunity to learn from some of the world’s biggest start-ups about how to discover and maintain a successful business/corporation. It will further offer students a fresh insight into the inner workings of these prestigious companies, and will provide a variety of activities to undertake.
Apple Headquarters and Campus Store
Apple’s Headquarters welcomes the public with a visitor centre; here students will be able to delve into the entrepreneurial tools used to bring this company into fruition (Moore 2017).
The Intel Museum
The Intel Museum allows the public to interact and learn about the technological advancements made by the company Intel. The museum is focused on the technological innovation made through their own advancements; the growth of technology within their microchips and other products throughout the years (Intel 2017).
Googleplex
Googleplex is the home to one of the largest and most influential entrepreneurial projects in the world; Google. Here students can visit the visitors center and draw inspiration from the entrepreneurial properties of the company (Kifer 2016).
Facebook Campus
The Facebook Campus is the home to the minds behind the world’s largest social media sharing platform, and start-up company success. The newly renovated home to Facebook will allow students to be inspired through the understanding and recognition of how to/growing a company to reach the stature of Facebook (Boorstein 2015).
New York, USA
Stay: 5 Days
Day 1: Rest and recover
Day 2: Museum of Arts and Design
Day 3: Guggenheim Museum
Day 4: SoHo District & NYU Entrepreneurship Festival
Day 5: Startup Grind in the morning, then pack and prepare for flights to Tokyo, Japan
New York to the rest of the world is a hub of culture, inspiration and innovation. The city is regarded for being the base of creative-driven industries such as advertising, media, fashion and design. It also is rival to Silicon Valley in the way that it also acts as a hub for start-ups and innovative brands to base their companies. Establishments across New York have taken mundane spaces from the gym to dry cleaners to restaurants, and have re invented and innovated them to build a rabid following and create something new and different from them. Students will have the opportunity to experience such establishments through a visit to the SoHo District; a particularly creative and design driven place in New York. Also, students will attend both the Guggenheim Museum (particularly for its architectural innovation) and the Museum of Arts and Design. To incorporate a more specific entrepreneurial aspect, students will have the opportunity to attend the NYU Entrepreneurial Festival where they can attend various lectures and other activities of the like from New York locals about entrepreneurship in New York. In relation to this, New York also holds many different networking events every month that students can attend to build their networks.
Museum of Arts and Design
The Museum of Arts and Design in NYC is an encapsulation of cutting edge design based on contemporary and historically inclined pieces. This museum purposes itself through the creative process of repurposing material into new pieces (The Museum of Arts and Design 2017)
Guggenheim Museum
The Guggenheim Museum, after the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, is an architecturally dynamic and innovative museum which explores contemporary art through exhibitions, educational initiatives and collaborations (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation 2017)
SoHo District
The SoHo District is a hub of design where students will be able to see firsthand the use of entrepreneurial approaches to business and creativity through the district's stores, restaurants, art and design galleries and architecture (Phillips 2017).
NYU Entrepreneurship Festival
This festival enables students to “connect, collaborate and celebrate entrepreneurs” through listening and talking to and with members of NYU’s start up community, and will allow students to create connections and gain further entrepreneurial knowledge (NYU 2017).
Startup Grind
Startup Grind New York City hosts monthly start-up events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. These events provide networking opportunities with successful start-ups and local entrepreneurs, and gives entrepreneurs inspiration for the startup journey ahead (Google for Entrepreneurs, 2017).
Waterloo, Canada
Stay: 4 Days
Day 1: Rest and recover
Day 2: Waterloo University (WU)
Day 3: Waterloo University (WU)
Day 4: Pack and prepare for Flights to Shanghai, China
Waterloo is a city situated in Ontario, Canada, and is home to Waterloo University (WU). This University boasts a great Entrepreneurial program; the Entrepreneurship Society (ENTSOC), to which students will be in attendance of. Along with this, UC will be undertaking the trip with Waterloo University students. This will integrate the students together to assist in the sharing of ideas and further discussion on what it means to innovate and be entrepreneurial. This will be a good opportunity to communicate with fellow entrepreneurial students.
Waterloo University (WU)
The Entrepreneurship Society (ENTSOC) purposes itself through their mission to build inclusive innovation through exposing students to the resources and opportunities needed to develop venture ideas (Entrepreneurship Society 2017).
Google & Innovation Sector
Trip Notes
Flights should be booked well in advance to get cheaper fares and save on costs. Accommodation to look at could include apartments or shared rooms which have facilities to cook and eat and lower the overall meal expenses and accommodation expenses. If members travelling are all same sex, sharing bedroom might be a more cost effective option for accommodation.
Business Model and Planning
In order for the planning of the Global Entrepreneurship Program project to be cohesive and successfully cover every aspect that was necessary, my group members and I decided a business model would be both the most obvious choice, yet suitably effective and functional. In order for us to plan anything major such as activities and even more importantly the cities those activities would take place in, every aspect of the program needed to be discussed and outlined before it was viable to plan the more accessible and external factors. The aspects that we outlined in our plan were Key Partners, Key Activities, Key Resources, Value Proposition, Cost Structure, Revenue Streams, Channels, Customer Segments and Customer Relationships. In order to evaluate our business model, it is necessary to understand how much purpose it filled to the planning of our project. Through the experience I think it was a staple piece of information that allowed each entrepreneurial student in my group to work both together and separately on the project yet remain on the same wavelength. One aspect of this plan that I found was the most useful was the Customer Relationships. This section, from my experience, gave the project somewhat of a brief, and acted as a reminder that the trip being planned is for students. It was imperative that the planning process was centralised around activities and cities that I felt the students would find relevant and interesting enough to capture and hold their attention. Overall, I found the business model a relevant and extremely useful tool which ultimately employed and kept our projects endeavour and entrepreneurial focus.
Reflections
The social entrepreneurship program that I worked with for my practical work was the Global Entrepreneurship Program created by Diane Phillips. Essentially this program is purposed towards helping entrepreneurship students to learn more about their chosen field of work through different lenses across the world. The program is in collaboration with the University of Waterloo, Canada, and will take six University of Canberra Entrepreneurship students to the world’s leading innovative and entrepreneurial hubs; those being Canberra, Waterloo, Tokyo, New York, Silicon Valley and Shanghai. The planning of this trip required time and effort to discover what activities in each city would really stimulate the students learning, and help them to apply practical learning to their chosen degree. The following will explore the process and the entrepreneurial aspect of planning this trip in a self-reflexive manner, and explain how entrepreneurship has not only been incorporated into, but guided the efforts put towards the planning of this project.
Entrepreneurship: It’s Role within this Project
The task at hand required of us an entrepreneurial role that needed to be filled. When we first undertook said task, we were given incredibly expansive lean-way to make our own opinions and decisions pertaining to not only how to structure our venture, but what needed to be included within it. We were informed that the goal that we were reaching was to plan a student trip to accommodate for six entrepreneurship students to travel to six cities around the world, that showcase innovation as a result of entrepreneurship as a learning experience for them. Our brief also outlined that we weren’t expected to plan the entire trip with all of the logistics, as that would have taken us over our 20 hour limit, our task was strictly to plan activities in six hubs across the world. We weren’t explicitly told what to include, or how to go about finding out what that was. I found this extremely difficult form the outset, considering I didn’t understand our task, or at the time how it had anything to do with entrepreneurship at all. Besides for the fact that we were planning a trip for students studying entrepreneurship, the concept of the task really got away from me and I didn’t understand the purpose of the assignment.
We were essentially taking on a venture with little guidance, conveying to me this assignments purpose; it was imperative that we used our ability to think and act like entrepreneurs to get the assignment completed. This revealed itself to me throughout the continuation of my tracked hourly efforts towards the assignment, I realised the way we were learning about entrepreneurship was through a hands on approach. The hours in which I had to find time to do the assignment, along with all the freelance ideas and thoughts about how to structure the travel plan and what we had time to include, I realised the way in which these jobs had to be undertaken to have a proper outcome required an entrepreneurial outlook. Through the continuation of me putting in my hours, I finally understood the way in which I was learning about entrepreneurship. We were creating something new and taking risks with what we were doing, which comes down to accessing entrepreneurial skills. Also the fact that we had almost complete control of everything that was to happen with the planning of the trip was all needed to be undertaken through an entrepreneur.
An aspect of this task which I found to really exhibit and test our entrepreneurial skill set of was our use of time management. Since most of our group, including myself, are part-time to full-time workers whose hours were generally weekdays, 9am to 5pm, it was imperative that we structure and time our meetings very specifically. Although this became incredibly challenging toward the end where time was fleeting, we were able to professionally discuss times for meetings, and times for group work, which I think was half of the battle in taking part in this project. One thing that I took form this task is that entrepreneurs get out of their ventures exactly what they put in. if I couldn’t do the work at a specific time, I would need to find time to do the research and collaboratively talk about the findings, or nothing would get done. The more effort that was applied to the task, the more efficiently and effectively the tasks would get done.
Reflection: Social Entrepreneurship Organisation
This project required of our group to assume the position of a Social Entrepreneurship Organisation. At first I was unsure how this differentiated from an entrepreneurial organisation, but throughout the project, I came to understand that it these are organisations which are non-for-profit, and their business means align with specific purpose to helping their community. Our project falls under this category as we endeavoured to help students who are assumable low on funds, to experience an educational trip which could expose them to a multi-faceted industry in which they would gain extra skills and knowledge to help them enter said industry after graduation. These organisations, as previously mentioned, are beneficial to community, as their goals rely on the wants and needs of those around them, and strive to help others for the purpose of helping rather than for personal gain.
Conclusion
I have realised through this experience that I do not believe I am inclined to entrepreneurial traits. I admit I have learnt a great deal of skills and knowledge on how to employ entrepreneurial traits, and I have enjoyed this incredible learning curve, but I have realised these entrepreneurial skills do not come to me naturally, and are not my strong suit. In order to get things done successfully as an entrepreneur, their needs to be a strong sense of organisation, drive and ambition, and I feel that I can’t produce said attributes as naturally as an entrepreneur would need to. The skills that I have learnt through this experience such as time management and forward thinking will most certainly be a great accompaniment to my skill set for whichever industry I do fall into.
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